American Revolution

The American Revolution is a colonial revolt that takes place between 1765 and 1783.

The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies win independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America

They defeat the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with France and others.

Members of American colonial society argue the position of "no taxation without representation", starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765.

They reject the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they lack representation in Parliament.

Protests steadily escalate to the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea Party in 1773, during which patriots destroy a consignment of taxed tea.

The British respond by closing Boston Harbor, then follow with a series of legislative acts that effectively rescind Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self-government and cause the other colonies to rally behind Massachusetts.

In late 1774, the Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance efforts against Great Britain; other colonists prefer to remain aligned to the British Crown and are known as Loyalists or Tories.

Tensions erupt into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when the British attempt to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

The conflict now develops into a global war, during which the Patriots (and later their French, Spanish, and Dutch allies) fight the British and Loyalists in what becomes known as the American Revolutionary War (1775–83).

Each of the thirteen colonies form a Provincial Congress that assumes power from the old colonial governments and suppresses Loyalism, and from here they build a Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington.

The Continental Congress determines King George's rule to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they declare the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776.

The Patriot leadership professes the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaim that all men are created equal.

The Continental Army forces the British out of Boston in 1776, but the British capture and hold New York City for the duration of the war.

The British blockade ports and capture other cities for brief periods, but they fail to defeat Washington's forces.

The Patriots unsuccessfully attempt  to invade Canada during the winter of 1775–76, but they capture a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, and the French enter the war as allies of the United States as a result.

The war later turns to the American South, where the British under the leadership of Charles Cornwallis capture an army at South Carolina but fail to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory.

A combined American–French force captures a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States.

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ends the conflict, confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire.

The United States takes possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking Florida.

Among the significant results of the revolution is the creation of a new Constitution of the United States.

The new Constitution establishes a relatively strong federal national government that includes an executive, a national judiciary, and a bicameral Congress that represents states in the Senate and the population in the House of Representatives.

The Revolution also results in the migration of around sixty thousand Loyalists to other British territories, especially British North America (Canada).

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